SP2 Post is Live

[Orlaam 306]

Now, where do I start? I guess I will by addressing those "God rays". What is it with these God rays?? Are we gonna shrivel up and die if God rays aren't included in the sim? No, we aren't. It amazes me that one feature can be the crux of so much disdain. This thread is so similar to the "FS11 Wish List" thread. Yes, my post in that thread was taken as some negative tirade against feature requests when it's obvious those who set the bar too high don't understand the computer industry and least of all gaming development.I want people to understand that when FSX was announced and the feature list was available, I was very disappointed to see ATC, AI, and real world aviation neglected so much; and don't start in about how eye candy like animals are a part of aviation. It's extremely clear to me that there's a division of interest in MSFS, and that's the hardcore aviation crowd, and a less than label-specific crowd that fall under the guise of casual VFR flyers to actual "gamers". We are at odds about what the priority is in this simulator. To me, a hardcore aviation guy, ATC, AI, SIDs/STARs, flight planning are a priority, and while I desire eye candy to look as good as it can, I firmly believe in limits that can be achieved in the sim. The other group is geared towards creating a "Virtual World", alive with growing trees, falling leaves, jumping fish, and people shopping at Wal-mart. I have to honestly say, I find a lot of the requests down right silly. So much of what people want have little or nothing to do with flying. Anyhow, when we look back at recent versions of MSFS from ACES, we see what was a release of software with little or no support from MS. Some editions of MS never had patches or were barely fixed with one patch. FS9 was a release replete with CTDs, memory issues, and other problems in the beginning, yet no one from MS ever said anything until it was releaved way down the road a patch would come out to address a couple key problems. Now we have a new sim and ACES is not only providing updates (i.e. patches), but communicating with the public about those updates. Shouldn't something be said about the fact ACES have provided more support than ever before? Is it still right of certain individuals to spit in their face because some of these "promises" that weren't delivered upon? I never read any statement from ACES about some of these features so many are mad about not getting in this release. Did ACES promise things like God rays or the kind of rendition seen in the pic posted on the MS site? For anyone to assume that the artistic rendition seen in that picture was to come to fruition with DX10, when you all knew DX10 hardware wasn't available at the time is ridiculous, and most notably a vivid picture of the naivete so many have about computer/software development. This is the way the industry works, and has worked since its incarnation. Software is always delayed, "promises" are always broken, and problems with the end result always exist.Regarding the fact that DX10 will require Vista, all I have to expand on that is the fact we've all known for a long time now that DX10 would require Vista. I'm building a new computer a decided not to go to Vista. Why? Because I've never been one to jump on every single product that is released to the market just because it's new or required. I'm perectly happy with FS9 and Windows XP right now, and I also understand that FSX will miss out on a few things without Vista. I can live with that for a couple more years. It sounds so spoiled to rail on ACES/MS when new development requires new purchases. You don't want to upgrade to Vista right now or don't have the money? Then don't upgrade and try to be happy with what you have. Why must you be on top of the curve every second of the day? I've never understood this behavior, and can only say that is seems very spoiled and greedy. If this isn't the reason, then it's clear once again that someone doesn't understand computer development. New technology requires change. Change in hardware design and change in code to keep up with those demands. You aren't going to be able to run all the lastest software on Windows XP, I'm sorry to say. If you were to buy a computer with OS2 on it, would you think you could install FS9 and go crazy? Not hardly. This industry is changing fast, and always will, so if you aren't up to the challenge and find frustration with its speed, then you have two choices - stop playing games/sims or pace your upgrades to meet your wallet.Lastly, I want to commend ACES on the delivery of yet another upgrade to fix certain problems, and I'd also like to point out that my disappointment with FSX not having new AI and ATC features hasn't altered my interest in MSFS. My hope is that these features will be addressed in the following version, but I also understand as a 35 year old realist, that the line has to be drawn somewhere; therefore your challenges in this and all versions of FS don't go unnoticed by me regardless of what the each product includes.

[chatman 29]

Hi Phil!I've been following your blog from the beginning and I'm glad you finally came to an end developing-wise.I can understand, from a company point of view, that some features did'nt make it to the SP due to time limitations and product policy (FSX 11, MSTS2). But: talking about features like godrays and other visual candies that were promised features ("promised" at least from the screenies, them beeing an error to show or not) I'm really disppointed to hear that "we have no future updates planned for the engine."How difficult/time consuming would it be to add these features later on?And if you really don't want to care any more about the game (let's not forget it is 1 year old - other companies support their games with patches for a much longer time) would it be possible for 3rd party developers to add this features to the engine?Anyway I enjoy flying FSX an I just hope it's not used as an appetizer for the next version (that's how I feel about VVista at the moment)regardsMartin

[maxter 0]

Maybe someone would like to post just how much an add-on aircraft costs these days to enable some out there to understand just how much value ACES is providing via Accelleration...Given there is a new aircraft, added functionality as well as fixes and enhancements, I'd say that 30 bucks is pretty good value. I mean that if PMDG came out with a new model of the Dreamliner or Abacus a new model of the A380, most big iron drivers would not hesitate for a minute to grab a copy, but because it's Microsoft, $30,00 is too much???Reading posts by bleeding hearts who don't have the courage or gumption to go out and buy appropriate hardware to carry out the mission (and still complain bitterly) is becomming an all too common and a regular part of these forums and quite frankly , a bit old.Cheers,Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern AustraliaIntel Core 2 Duo E6700ASUS P5N32-E SLI Deluxe Motherboard4GB Corsair VS DDR2 667Mhz RAMInno3D 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 590MHz VideoASUS MW221u 21" Wide Screen LCD2 x 320Gb WD SATA DrivesCreative X-Fi Platinum Sound Lian Li PC-B20B Aluminium Black CaseMS Vista Ultimate OEMCH FlightSim Yoke USBCH Pro Pedals USBCH Throttle Quadrant USBTrackIR 4 Pro and Track ClipMSFS FSX Deluxe Edition Full install at 1400x960x32Check out my 5th Around the World flight with MS FSX at http://members.iinet.com.au/~portercbp/fly...W_05/index.html

[Guest s0436]

Thank you.So the night/taxi lights will work on all default 737/A321 FSX models? I am a little confused with you saying "new 737/321 models"

[MarkW 1,491]

Orlaam"To me, a hardcore aviation guy, ATC, AI, SIDs/STARs, flight planning are a priority,"To me the above are really the most simple to fix with 3rd party addons. As these features appeal to such a small segment, why bother to change them when FSBuild, Radar Contact, Ultimate Traffic give you almost everything you want here...and Vatsim goes even beyond this. Other than that your post is bang on...godrays...who cares. Its not like I see these very often through the cloud, haze, smog where I live.Mark.

[deetee 164]

Hey you guys, don't be too disappointed that all the extra features you wanted won't be included in SP2 because they will be in SP3. Just remember though that SP3 will probably be called FS11 !!!! ;)

[Geofa 108]

Sorry-I just have to take up the "hardcore aviation guy, ATC, AI, SIDs/STARs, flight planning priority " comment.I am a commercial multi engine pilot, have been flying for 17 years, and have been simming for longer than that. I think I thus qualify as a "hardcore aviation" guy.In my 15 years of flying ifr 98% of the time(not vfr) I have done Sid/stars perhaps 15 times out of thousands of flights. Therefore they don't interest me all that much though it would be nice to have.Flight planning-I use my real world one so that also has little interest for me.Atc-I'd like more here-but more than your requested features I'd like it to screw things up like the real world-like not having my ifr plan on file, getting my call signal wrong, changing my clearance at the worst time in flight, and forgetting to hand me off to the next controller-things that happen quite often.As far as animals-check my blog site out below. Notice that on my recent 6500 nm trip out of 17 airports I landed at 3 had coyote warnings (on atis, tower, and printed) and one had cautions of cows on the runway. I almost had to do a go around last week due to migrating birds overflying the runway during my flare.I would be happy if all your requests are implemented in the next fs-but we all have very different opinions of what "hard core" or "serious" is-and they are all valid. Personally for my hard core wishes I'd take more animals and wild life (and bugs) as I encounter these on a more regular basis than sids/stars.http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

[blueridgeflyer 1]

Phil,I read the feature list and noticed no mention of the "wind shift" issue that many of us ASX users are struggling with. Is it correct to assume that this is solely a third party issue? The ASX developers have asserted that this would need to be addressed by ACES.Thanks for updating us on the upcoming SP2. Looking forward to it.Ryan

[Reset XPDR 1,271]

I was just about to post exactly the same thing. Phil?Gary

[frankla 44]

I hate to break it to you, but majority of RW flyers that I know, myself included fly for the vista; view from up above. Beleive it or not, There are people who are avid flyers whose joy in flying is not just for sake of manipulation of a complex machine! For these people and myeslf (a hardcore simmer) the eye candy is very important. If you still have doubts please check the most popular sim add-on products such as FEX, Hi-Res mesh, GE and Megascenery series that are mainly purchased by hard core simmers and note that none of those products are anything but eye candy.

[GHarrall 494]

Good point,The windshift issue means I rarely fire up ASX with FSX anymore. It's just too annoying......Glenn

[Guest]

i read his post. Unless we fill microsofts bank up, the rest of us have to wait till xmas to get the sp2 fix for free. that is very dirty planning even for microsoft. I don't like redbull racing so the pack is boring for me, I just want to fly my airplane i already have smoothly & not in a slideshow like now.

[n4gix 4,947]

>Sorry-I just have to take up the "hardcore aviation guy, ATC,>AI, SIDs/STARs, flight planning priority " comment.>>I am a commercial multi engine pilot, have been flying for 17>years, and have been simming for longer than that. I think I>thus qualify as a "hardcore aviation" guy.>>In my 15 years of flying ifr 98% of the time(not vfr) I have>done Sid/stars perhaps 15 times out of thousands of flights.>Therefore they don't interest me all that much though it would>be nice to have.Geoffa,I just finished a long conversation with my best friend, who's now retired from over 45 years of professional aviation. I asked him specifically about how often he managed to complete a filed SID or STAR during the course of his career.His reply was a rather loud LAUGH!... followed by about three minutes of choking, coughing and spluttering...When Jim finally regained control over his "fit of amusement," he simply replied, "...at most a dozen times." Understand that Jim has >40k hours logged as a multi-engine rated professional.Jim then paraphrased a well-know aphorism from warfare, "No flightplan ever survives contact with air traffic control..."

[Geofa 108]

Great story!Now that would be a great improvement to atc-not having any flightplan survive. Maybe a future add on-flightplan destroyer? :-lolhttp://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

[FlyingsCool 3]

I grudgingly agree that it's the right call, but I will be sad that I can't fly such nice aircraft anymore. Of course, perhaps I may not notice the issues, too. If it's just problems with the display of some textures on the outside of the aircraft not displaying properly, there will be times when I will be able to ignore this problem, especially since most of my time is spent inside the cockpit.But, as I said, I am quite attached to some aircraft. Of course, nobody's saying I HAVE to upgrade, either.But I'm also aware that the portion of the user base that actually uses downloaded aircraft is quite small. A quick check on FS-MP easily confirms this as, on any given night, most of the flights are being done in default aircraft in the times that I have checked it out.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180